I sew and I’m a Twenty-Something; Don’t Ignore Me.

This past Monday, I had a fluke of an accident happen with my embroidery machine. The needle bent and broke, damaging the bottom thread cutter. At the time I didn’t put two and two together and just understood that the thread cutter wasn’t working and sounded wrong. Insert the voice in the back of my head (That sounds like my mother, who taught me about sewing machines) telling me to check the normal problem areas: thread, needle, lint. Check, replaced, and check. I took the foot plate off the machine and tested the thread cutter a few times. There was nothing physical that I could see and fix. Which meant one thing:

Time to get the machine serviced.

Since the machine is under warranty, I went off the sewing store that was recommended to me by the sewing machine company. I had a shoulder bag that was large enough for my machine and made sure that it was safe and sound before I left for a 30 minute drive down to the store.

Here comes the fun part (Mind you, I use the term “fun” in a very, very loose manner).

I hefted the bag onto my shoulder and walked into the store, going straight to the point of sales and waiting behind an older lady. The lady finished her transaction….

…and the sales associate ignored me and looked over to the lady on the other side of the point of sales with a smile and asked if she found everything alright.

This happened 8 times. I’ll say that again. I was ignored EIGHT times.

By this time, my shoulder was starting to get sore. 20 minutes of holding 20 pounds in one position will make anyone sore. I got up close to the point of sale desk and cleared my throat.

Want to know what I got from the sales associate?

“Was there something you needed?”

“Yes, I need to drop my machine off for repairs.”

“Oh, we’ll get someone here to get your machine from your car.”

“That’s not needed. It’s on my shoulder.”

“What??”

I twisted slightly to show them bag on my shoulder. “It’s not heavy unless I’ve been standing with it for a long time.”

“Oh….hang on then.”

It took another ten minutes and 3 more explanations before I relieved of my machine. Another explanation from that, and being informed that it would be 3 weeks before my machine would be ready.

Personally, I have no issues with waiting 3 weeks for a machine. I can understand things being busy with many projects. What I can’t understand is why a twenty-something was ignored, then spoken to like I don’t belong in that store in the first place.

No store should judge a person by how they look and their age. I know many 18 year olds that sew better than I can and I know 30+ people that can’t sew to save their life. Having this happen to me was both disheartening and frustrating. I know that once I receive my machine back, I will be doing my be to never had to have the machine serviced again lest that store gets a rather rude awakening before I let myself walk in there again.